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Regional Identities of Czech Historical Lands

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DOI: 10.15201/hungeobull.65.1.2Vaishar, A. and Zapletalová, Hungarian J. Hungarian Geographical Geographical Bulletin Bulletin 65 65 2016 (2016) (1) (1) 15–25. 15–25.15 Regional identities of Czech historical lands Antonín VAISHAR and Jana ZAPLETALOVÁ1 Abstract Bohemia and Moravia are historical lands, which constitute Czechia (together with a small part of Silesia) since the 10th century. Two entirely diff erent sett lement systems can be identifi ed in Czechia: the centralistic Bohemian sett lement system surrounded by a ring of mountains, and the transitional and polycentric Moravian sett lement system. The two lands were physically divided by a border forest. Although they have belonged always to the same state, their autonomy was relatively high until the formation of the Czechoslovak Republic in 1918. In 1948, a new administrative division was introduced, which did not respect the border between the two lands. Bohemia and Moravia kept their importance as diff erent cultural units only. The main research question addressed in this paper is how the Bohemian and Moravian identities are perceived by the people today and whether it makes any sense to consider the historical lands seriously when rethinking the idea of the Europe of regions. Keywords: regional identity, administrative division, historical lands, Bohemia, Moravia, Czech Republic Introduction decision making power is dominated by the large ones. Conversely, big countries fear The idea of nation-state was introduced as a high participation of small countries in the result of the Treaty of Westphalia (1648). Its decision-making process, although they pro- purpose was to change the old dynastic sys- vide the majority of resources for EU level tem into a new territorial one. Nationalism, programmes. The solution could be a unifi ed developing in the subsequent two centuries, Europe divided into historically grounded became the main ideology all over Europe. regions, which can be more comparable in Many times, the idea was abused for provok- size. Applegate, C. (1999) writes: Europe has ing wars and confl icts. In (western) Europe, always been and remains very much a continent the confl icts among nation-states were over- of regional identities. come by creating the European Union, which Keating, M. (1998) explains that regions governed relations between two traditional are no longer confi ned with the borders of enemies: Germany and France among other their nation-states but have become actors in things. Recently, the power has shift ed from European and international politics, and they the level of nation-states to multinational cor- fi nd themselves increasingly in competition porations and banks. In 2010, Herman van with each other. In this way regional identity Rompuy, president of the European Council, has been increasingly identifi ed in the EU´s declared that the idea of nation-states is over. cohesion policy as an important element for European integration is the most important regional development (Paasi, A. 2009). challenge in this process. Of course, regional identity is subject to The problem of nation-states in Europe a long term development process. Nation- consists of – among other things – the fact states are deeply ingrained in people’s that the Union is formed by countries of very minds. Nationalism is also a tempting card diff erent size. Small countries fear that the in the hands of populist politicians. The fi rst 1 Institute of Geonics, Czech Academy of Sciences, Department of Environmental Geography, Drobného 28, 602 00 Brno, Czech Republic. E-mails: [email protected], [email protected] 16 Vaishar, A. and Zapletalová, J. Hungarian Geographical Bulletin 65 (2016) (1) 15–25. att empts to give some political power to the ants are proud to be part of the region and have European regions can be traced back to the a strong territorial connection. In addition, the Maastricht Treaty in 1993 and the establish- authors’ idea on regional solidarity likely ment of the Council of Regions one year later. acting as a factor of regional identity is also Painter, J. (2002) pointed out that the idea is relevant for our case study. more top-down than bott om-up and, thus, it The concept of identity has been used is a question whether it will resonate in the since the 1980s – regional identity being regions themselves. Paasi, A. (2001) expressed a special manifestation thereof (Paasi, A. the idea that European regions are the results 2003). The author defi nes regional identity of regionalization processes more than his- as a relationship between a group of people torical and cultural products. Thus, the ques- and the bounding region. Regional identity tion arises whether regions, which are mostly is understood as an abstraction that can be embedded in the history, are perceived as rel- used to analyse links between social actors evant entities by their inhabitants. and the process of institutionalisation (Paasi, Czechia consists of two historical lands: A. 2002). According to Chromý, P. and Janů, Bohemia and Moravia. In the course of his- H. (2003) a particular territory with the specifi c tory, small and discontinuous parts of Silesia social, economic or developmental conditions were connected with the territory of the state. (specifi c historical development) serve as a base Since the administrative autonomy of the his- for forming the territorial/regional identity. Such torical lands was gradually degrading, they regions are neither economic nor administra- have not created any administrative unit tive constructs but rather realistic territorial neither their borders have been kept within units embedded in the mental memory of the borders of lower level units (regions, dis- people. As Odehnal, J. and Šerý, M. (2012) tricts, communes). note, regional identity is closely related to re- On the other hand, it seems that cultural gional borders. These boundaries play an impor- characteristics and diff erences have survived. tant role in shaping the regional identity because The question is whether the borders between they help to defi ne the region, thus helping peo- these historical lands are kept in the mind of ple to perceive “their” region. Toušek, V. et al. people and whether this historical memory (1991) dealt with the problem of boundaries can be used to create regional and local iden- between the Czech historical lands just aft er tities and, thus, enhance regional develop- the political change. ment and cohesion in general. The problem of borders and borderlands is relatively frequent in the contemporary European geography. The research is focused The identity of European regions mostly on the consequences of the elimina- tion of borders within the framework of Regional identity relates to the concept of European integration and later within the us – and the others (see e.g. Neumann, I.B. Schengen zone. In the mainstream literature 1999). According to Paasi, A. (1986), region- the emphasis oft en lie on the changes from al identity could be divided into two parts: physical barriers to a psychological or mental subjective (images of the region held by its one (e.g. Newman, D. 2006 and many oth- inhabitants and those living outside of the ers). As Lundén, T. and Zalamans, D. (2001) region) and objective (based on physical or pointed out there has been a geographical re- economic indicators). According to Sedlacek, focusing of the border away from the level of the S. et al. (2009), regional identity relates to re- State down to internal regions, municipalities gional consciousness and regional solidarity: and neighbourhoods. Regional solidarity is an aspect functioning as a Which territorial units come into account landmark of a particular region, which implies to understand Europe as a unity of regions? a specifi c relationship with the region. Inhabit- Such units should be large enough to have Vaishar, A. and Zapletalová, J. Hungarian Geographical Bulletin 65 (2016) (1) 15–25. 17 related economic and political powers, they Jeseník district based on the concept of men- should be more or less comparable in size tal maps. They stated that regional identity and should have some historically rooted is relatively weak. However, it is necessary identity. Such historical regions exist in all to note that the original population of the larger (West) European countries (Länder Jeseník area was almost completely replaced in Germany, Provinces historiques in France, aft er World War II; therefore, its regional Comuninades autónomas in Spain, Regioni in identity became weakened in general. On the Italy, Regions in England, etc.). The bounda- other hand, it is also important to emphasise ries of some of them are clear and unchanged that the land’s identity is only a part of the during centuries; in other cases, their size was regional identity. slightly changed in the past. Nevertheless, In the 1991 population census, it was pos- also in the western part of Europe, problems sible to declare the Moravian and Silesian of regional identity occur as e.g. Fichtner, U. ethnic background besides the Czech nation- (2006) shows on the example of the Southern ality. At that time, about 1.3 million inhabit- Upper Rhine Valley. ants declared the Moravian nationality (13% The situation in Central and Eastern of the population). It was partly connected Europe is more complicated. Boundaries of with the eff orts of some Moravian micro- individual states oft en changed in the his- regions to be connected with Moravian dis- tory; historical lands were oft en divided by tricts or regions and with the political am- diff erent countries. The second problem is bitions of some Moravian politicians. In the connected with the fact that many countries 2001 census, only 400,000 people declared in this part of Europe have gained (or re- the Moravian ethnicity (3.7% of the popu- gained) political independence only a short lation).
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